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Just wondering if anyone else is thinking about medical school that is in this major.
Anyone else a Biomedical Informatics major?
- Thread starter armoman92
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I was actually considering doing a masters program in biomedical/health informatics. Was this your undergrad major?
Could you tell me some things you liked about it? It seems like an extremely promising field for the near future
Could you tell me some things you liked about it? It seems like an extremely promising field for the near future
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I'm not finished yet, but yes, it is my undergrad major. There is some information bellow:
In short, it is:
- Biology (with emphasis on genetics)
- Computer Science (with emphasis on databases)
- Healthcare administration (with emphasis on EMR/EHR)
Like the venn diagram shows, there are 3 separate sub-fields that make up Biomedical informatics. Bioinformatics, Medical (Health) Informatics, and Clinical Genomics.
I like the medical informatics part the most. There will be some monumental advances in the next 20 years as computing power increases, and artificial intelligences emerge. Being an expert in medical data will make you the ultimate doctor (diagnostic), there is no question about that.
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In the news recently:
http://m.ibtimes.com/what-personalized-medicine-why-obama-supporting-it-215-million-pledge-1800494
There will be money going into the field.
I had to write an assignment for class that summarizes the advances to come.
http://m.ibtimes.com/what-personalized-medicine-why-obama-supporting-it-215-million-pledge-1800494
There will be money going into the field.
I had to write an assignment for class that summarizes the advances to come.
Personalized Medicine: The Next Generation in Healthcare
Abstract
Personalized medicine is an exciting and new methodology that gaining traction in healthcare. Recently, President Obama announced an incentive to expedite the proliferation of personalized medicine in the United States (Pear, 2015). What the White House calls the “precision medicine initiative” would financially jumpstart and set the framework for a unified effort between public and private sector(Pear, 2015). With personalized medicine in the mainstream, Americans will attain targeted healthcare and earlier disease detection, both at lower costs. Hopefully, this incentive will also increase the amount of jobs available in the biotechnology market, to which the discipline of bioinformatics is essential.
A Targeted Approach to Medicine
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, defines personalized medicine as “the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics, needs and preferences of each patient” (FDA, 2013). The personalized approach hopes to combat “lack of ability [clinicians have] to predict an individual patient’s treatment success for most diseases” (FDA, 2013). Since “it has been suggested that common gene variants are responsible for the majority of common diseases,” the compilation and subsequent analysis of acentralized gene database “may be useful to help identify these common variants and their relative importance in the population” (McCarty, Wilke, Giampietro, Wesbrook & Caldwell, 2005). With these “common variants” identified, further study can be completed as to the efficacy of certain treatments of pharmacological agents for individuals with a specific genetic trait (McCarty et al., 2005). Furthermore, information ascertained from the database could be used to screen patients’ genomes for potential disease. With an established genomic database, “computational and mathematical methods will allow for the analysis of thousands of data points associated with each individual patient” (Jakka, Rossbach, 2013). Additionally, “ as molecular diagnostics data begin to accumulate from next-generation sequencing / whole-genome sequencing efforts… disease classifications are likely to become even more precise and be extended” (Jakka et al., 2013). Agreater quantity of patients will make the databases more robust, allowing for “complex systems analyses, i.e. integration, normalizing, query, mining, analysis, storage and protection of data.” Time with an aggressive research effort from many different parties “will catalyze the development of predictive and actionable models” (Jakka et al., 2013).
A Cost Effective Alternative
In medicine today, a generalized approach is taken towards treating disease. Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University (2011) describes healthcare today as “in crisis” because it “is expensive, reactive, inefficient, and focused largely on one size fits all treatments.” Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health (2011) outlines one of the “biggest goals” in the adoption of a personalized medicine doctrine as “cut[ing] the cost of sequencing an entire humangenome to $1,000 or less.” He believes that “this advance will pave the way for each person’s genome to be sequenced as part of the standard of care, leading to a revolution in the practice of medicine.” The $1000 dollar price point is “considered a criticalbenchmark because it is comparable to costs of existing medical tests and procedures” (PMC, 2011). The conclusion brought about by this price equality is simple; if more targeted treatment can be accomplished at the same price, with an even better patient outcome, it is ultimately superior.
A Growing Market
As personalized medicine becomes a more accepted practice, the business associated with it will also increase. President Obama met “with patients’ advocates, researchers, and drug and biotechnology company executives” before his national address, which suggests that he is planning on applying American industry towards a common goal (Pear, 2015). For example, the research industry would handle the “development of effective clinical decision support tools for integration into electronic health records” and “setting up and conducting appropriate pilot studies for data collection in targeted precision-medicine areas” (Mirnezami, Nicholson, Darzi, 2012). The public sector could benefit as well with government employees carrying out tasks associated with the “generation of transparent privacy laws” and the “identification of socioeconomic priority areas likely to benefit most from precision-medicine strategies” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). The biomedical community could aid in “development and contribution to an evolving new system of disease classification incorporating emerging molecular information” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). “Development of effective diagnostic tests” could be the role of the pharmaceutical industry, who would advance “therapeutic agents for management of conditions identified as major socioeconomic burdens” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). As a side benefit, the education industry would also benefit as “training to develop improved understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in disease” would become commonplace (Mirnezamiet al., 2012).
References
FDA. (2013). Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA’s Role in a New Era of Medical Product Development. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.fda.gov/downloads/scienceresearch/specialtopics/personalizedmedicine/ucm372421.pdf
Jakka S, Rossbach M. An economic perspective on personalized medicine. The HUGO J 2013;7:1.
Mirnezami, R., Nicholson, J., & Darzi, A. (2012). Preparing for Precision Medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 489-491. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1114866
New England Journal of Medicine, 489-491. Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1114866
Pear, R. (2015, January 30). Obama to Unveil Research Initiative to Develop Tailored Medical Treatments. New York TImes. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://nyti.ms/1JTa180
Snyderman R. Personalized health care: from theory to practice. Biotechnol J 2012;7:973–979.
Abstract
Personalized medicine is an exciting and new methodology that gaining traction in healthcare. Recently, President Obama announced an incentive to expedite the proliferation of personalized medicine in the United States (Pear, 2015). What the White House calls the “precision medicine initiative” would financially jumpstart and set the framework for a unified effort between public and private sector(Pear, 2015). With personalized medicine in the mainstream, Americans will attain targeted healthcare and earlier disease detection, both at lower costs. Hopefully, this incentive will also increase the amount of jobs available in the biotechnology market, to which the discipline of bioinformatics is essential.
A Targeted Approach to Medicine
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, defines personalized medicine as “the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics, needs and preferences of each patient” (FDA, 2013). The personalized approach hopes to combat “lack of ability [clinicians have] to predict an individual patient’s treatment success for most diseases” (FDA, 2013). Since “it has been suggested that common gene variants are responsible for the majority of common diseases,” the compilation and subsequent analysis of acentralized gene database “may be useful to help identify these common variants and their relative importance in the population” (McCarty, Wilke, Giampietro, Wesbrook & Caldwell, 2005). With these “common variants” identified, further study can be completed as to the efficacy of certain treatments of pharmacological agents for individuals with a specific genetic trait (McCarty et al., 2005). Furthermore, information ascertained from the database could be used to screen patients’ genomes for potential disease. With an established genomic database, “computational and mathematical methods will allow for the analysis of thousands of data points associated with each individual patient” (Jakka, Rossbach, 2013). Additionally, “ as molecular diagnostics data begin to accumulate from next-generation sequencing / whole-genome sequencing efforts… disease classifications are likely to become even more precise and be extended” (Jakka et al., 2013). Agreater quantity of patients will make the databases more robust, allowing for “complex systems analyses, i.e. integration, normalizing, query, mining, analysis, storage and protection of data.” Time with an aggressive research effort from many different parties “will catalyze the development of predictive and actionable models” (Jakka et al., 2013).
A Cost Effective Alternative
In medicine today, a generalized approach is taken towards treating disease. Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University (2011) describes healthcare today as “in crisis” because it “is expensive, reactive, inefficient, and focused largely on one size fits all treatments.” Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health (2011) outlines one of the “biggest goals” in the adoption of a personalized medicine doctrine as “cut[ing] the cost of sequencing an entire humangenome to $1,000 or less.” He believes that “this advance will pave the way for each person’s genome to be sequenced as part of the standard of care, leading to a revolution in the practice of medicine.” The $1000 dollar price point is “considered a criticalbenchmark because it is comparable to costs of existing medical tests and procedures” (PMC, 2011). The conclusion brought about by this price equality is simple; if more targeted treatment can be accomplished at the same price, with an even better patient outcome, it is ultimately superior.
A Growing Market
As personalized medicine becomes a more accepted practice, the business associated with it will also increase. President Obama met “with patients’ advocates, researchers, and drug and biotechnology company executives” before his national address, which suggests that he is planning on applying American industry towards a common goal (Pear, 2015). For example, the research industry would handle the “development of effective clinical decision support tools for integration into electronic health records” and “setting up and conducting appropriate pilot studies for data collection in targeted precision-medicine areas” (Mirnezami, Nicholson, Darzi, 2012). The public sector could benefit as well with government employees carrying out tasks associated with the “generation of transparent privacy laws” and the “identification of socioeconomic priority areas likely to benefit most from precision-medicine strategies” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). The biomedical community could aid in “development and contribution to an evolving new system of disease classification incorporating emerging molecular information” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). “Development of effective diagnostic tests” could be the role of the pharmaceutical industry, who would advance “therapeutic agents for management of conditions identified as major socioeconomic burdens” (Mirnezami et al., 2012). As a side benefit, the education industry would also benefit as “training to develop improved understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in disease” would become commonplace (Mirnezamiet al., 2012).
References
FDA. (2013). Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA’s Role in a New Era of Medical Product Development. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.fda.gov/downloads/scienceresearch/specialtopics/personalizedmedicine/ucm372421.pdf
Jakka S, Rossbach M. An economic perspective on personalized medicine. The HUGO J 2013;7:1.
Mirnezami, R., Nicholson, J., & Darzi, A. (2012). Preparing for Precision Medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 489-491. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1114866
New England Journal of Medicine, 489-491. Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1114866
Pear, R. (2015, January 30). Obama to Unveil Research Initiative to Develop Tailored Medical Treatments. New York TImes. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://nyti.ms/1JTa180
Snyderman R. Personalized health care: from theory to practice. Biotechnol J 2012;7:973–979.
Last edited:
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Possibly the coolest the ever... just explore these links. If you have $15 million, buy one.
http://www.dwavesys.com/software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Two
___________________________________
Schools should figure out a way to teach students how to do genetics computation using this platform? Teach students how to set up programs that could utilize this machine. From what I understand, it will be possible to "rent" computing time from these in the near future.
Bellow is a link to a sample problem that the D-wave can solve. I understood, maybe 20% of it, but the correlation between the "probablistic" nature of quantum computing, and the "probablistic" nature of bioinfmatics tells me that this could be applied to what we will be learning. The manufacuturer even advertises the machine for bioinformatic usage.
http://www.dwavesys.com/sites/default/files/Map Coloring WP2.pdf
________________________________
Now if you found this cool, here are come books (fiction) that involve super computers. All amazing books! Better than all the crap published today. If you read the Hunger Games, and don't read these...
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966, Robert A. Heinlein
Speaker for the Dead, 1986, Orson Scott Card (read Ender's Game first, if you haven't already)
I, Robot, is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov
I have all these books in electronic print, and audiobook. Let me know if you want some.
_____________________________
Future, here we come. Next stop, space elevator
http://www.dwavesys.com/software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Two
___________________________________
Schools should figure out a way to teach students how to do genetics computation using this platform? Teach students how to set up programs that could utilize this machine. From what I understand, it will be possible to "rent" computing time from these in the near future.
Bellow is a link to a sample problem that the D-wave can solve. I understood, maybe 20% of it, but the correlation between the "probablistic" nature of quantum computing, and the "probablistic" nature of bioinfmatics tells me that this could be applied to what we will be learning. The manufacuturer even advertises the machine for bioinformatic usage.
http://www.dwavesys.com/sites/default/files/Map Coloring WP2.pdf
________________________________
Now if you found this cool, here are come books (fiction) that involve super computers. All amazing books! Better than all the crap published today. If you read the Hunger Games, and don't read these...
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966, Robert A. Heinlein
Speaker for the Dead, 1986, Orson Scott Card (read Ender's Game first, if you haven't already)
I, Robot, is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov
I have all these books in electronic print, and audiobook. Let me know if you want some.
_____________________________
Future, here we come. Next stop, space elevator
